citibank giving 4% cash back on all purchases

Couple of things:

1) Cashbacks are capped at $1500 per year
2) What do they mean by the opening balance (less payments and credits)?

Its the 'less payments and credits' bit - I am not sure what the effect of this would be. If my opening balance was $6000, you could be pretty certain that I would be making payments of $6000? So, do you only get a cashback if you are paying interest, or what?

 

See the page http://www.citibank.com.au/portal/citiwm_home_center.jsp?frameset=centerFrameset&productID=CreditCards&path=/augcb/english/prod/det/cards_cashback.htm&frameval1=wowWorkID&framevar1=workID

 

I think that is partly right. To qualify for the cash back in any month, you need to have an opening debit balance, then you deduct this month's repayments from the opening balance to determine the applicable cash back % (ranging from 0.5% to 4%), which is then multipled by this month's new spend.

If you pay off the opening balance in full by the due date during the month, no cash back for you. (Why? Because zero x 4% x new spend = zero).

If you did not pay off the opening balance in full by the due date during the month, you will qualify for the cash back but you will be paying interest on your card.

So it seems to me that this card would not benefit a transactor who pays their card off in full each month , but (all other things (like interest rates) being equal) may suit a revolver who doesn't pay their card off in full each month.

 

This card has $69 annual fee plus $19 per additional card issued. Noticed some small print on Citibank's web site also that no cash back is credited until it totals greater then $25.

 

New Chump, if you paid your CB CashBack card each month in full (e.g. opening bal less pmts = Zero) then you would get a minimum of 0.5% cashbk on your new purchases for that month (not zero).

The best way to get you cashback amount up is to BT more than $6K @ 5.9%, thus you then qual for 4% cashback on any new purchases, provided you are not paying the card in full each month (e.g. your opening bal less pmts remains above $6K).